Super-Crafty Halloween Costume Contest entries on The Poop!

UPDATED! Nov. 1: I just added 40 more that came in over the past 48 hours. I’m totally blown away, and scared to judge the contest. Look for the winners on Monday.

Excellent work with this year’s Super-Crafty Halloween Costume Contest entries!

This year I didn’t even look at most of them until the last minute, and had a blast with each new surprise. As always, I love the combination of hard-core craftiness pros and parents who are less skilled but manage to come up with something great through hard work and creativity. Keep checking back! I’ll be adding more throughout the day. The rules are here.

This is also posted as a gallery on The Big Event. I give them a slideshow version, but like to set up this “director’s cut” with the full e-mails and larger photos for people who want to invest the time in reading all the stories.

Exclusive info for The Poop loyalists: I will have a “family” contest winner, so if your costumes have a theme (it has to include at least one kid) be sure to include a photo with the group. If you’re entering, please try to get your photos in today. If I get a flood of these on Halloween, it’s likely that I’ll be more selective about which ones get posted.

(Also, please do what you can to keep the files between 150 KB and 1 MB. My e-mail box is brimming from this contest and a recent collection of Herb Caen thank you notes.)

Thanks to everyone who entered! Enjoy the costumes and remember to check back. I’ll be adding more costumes this morning and afternoon.

Our little Bruce Lee is all grown up! Here’s our daughter and her little brother, Gangnam Style. I couldn’t resist given their perfect body types, Korean heritage, and the fact that the looove dancing to the song.

– Jane

Phil,

Hopefully you have room for one more super crafty Halloween costume entry. Our preschooler, Ben, is obsessed with public transport. His wish was to be a MUNI bus driver so the costume had to be homemade. Notice the letterman style “worm” logo on the back of his jacket. He passed out transfer tickets to one and all during his school’s Halloween Fair.

Cheers,

Anne

Hi Peter,

This is my daughter’s first year trick-or-treating! I wanted to dress her up in some sort of costume involving a cape, so after finding the red gingham dress in a bag of hand-me-downs, I decided on Little Red Riding Hood. My sister sewed the red cape (with an adorable red leaf print lining too!) and the little white apron. And we finished off the outfit with a tiny basket and a pair of red Toms!

Terry Lew

Hi Peter,

I’m a friend of (your wife) so I am sure there is some rule somewhere that says I can’t win because of that (no matter how many cupcakes I promise her). But I am especially proud of our last 2 costumes and wanted to share them. I don’t need to win – just want to share what is possible with a glue gun and a willing model.

On the left is this year’s. Dress is store bought, as are the various snake accessories. “Hair” is 12 rubber snakes I attached to barrettes and clipped to her head. Creepy “eyes” are courtesy of cheap, flashy drug store makeup.

On the right is last year’s, which I was all set to send to you and then didn’t actually send the email (found it around Thanksgiving still in my Drafts file). I attached the bubbles (acrylic Christmas ornaments) to a body suit with ribbons and a glue gun. The glasses and wig are store bought. Microphone is a toilet paper roll and a foam ball). Costume weighed a freakin’ ton!

Cheers!

Shari

Hi Peter,

Here is our entry for the costume contest. Our little Lucia (Lulu) is 4 and wanted to be an Eiffel Tower because it is the mascot that appears in her French preschool’s logo. Though time-consuming, it was fun making the costume — minimal sewing and lots of duct tape!

Happy Halloween!

Bianca Cano Nakamura

(entrant is Lucia Bella Nakamura)

My kids Cullen-11, Lilith-8 and Barrett-5. Rock, Paper & Scissors!

The Jones family, of Halloween 2008 “Ava Flav” fame. Our members have increased by 1 since then.

Chicken, salad, sand, witch.
Ava wanted to be a witch, so I bought a few different items to pull it together. Morgan’s chicken suit was also store-bought. (I did have to sew a gusset into the hat and add a chin strap to make it fit on his giant melon.) When I told my husband, Andy what the kids were going to be, he said, “we could be a chicken sandwich!” However, there are four of us, so I suggested chicken salad sandwich. I made lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and baby carrots out of felt and sewed them to my shirt. I glued sand to Andy’s shirt and sewed on the sand toys.

In the picture, Ava had just taken a spill on the pavement, and Morgan was upset because Ava was upset.

This is Roshan. He’s 2. The idea of making a Cupid costume came to me after I realized that many hearts have been broken, and many ladies have melted in his short time on this Earth.

The whole thing cost about $6 to make, and I used a bunch of stuff from around the house. My Craftsman drill was invaluable.

By 6pm tonight, it was too cold in Livermore to wear this so I had a warmer version ready for Trick or Treating.

Paratrooper toy:

Two cans of spray paint: $6

Plastic helmet: $3

Old rain coat, rain boots, belt, bottle of bubbles, draw-string plastic bag (used to make the pants and the parachute), cardboard, and duct tape laying around the house: Free

Everyone mistaking you for a Teletubbie: Priceless

This is my 5 1/2 month old’s first Halloween. He is my sweet little “Prince Charming.” When we found out that he was going to be a boy, we went shopping for his first gift from his Daddy and I. We searched at four different stores but nothing really seemed right. Finally, this “Lock up Your Daughters” bib practically jumped off the shelf at us. It was perfect! This was the first time he has worn it because it is still too big for him. I made his crown out of an old baby hat, a blue baby washcloth, and a store-bought crown. The jewels on top were bright pink so I covered them with blue nail polish. And those are my lips all over his face. 🙂

Thank you,
Virginia

Hi Peter,

My older son wanted to be a “Wild Thing” this year. His favorite part of the costume were the claws. He roared so loud that he scared the King of the Wild Things (baby brother).

Happy Halloween!

Kim L.

Hi Peter,

Here’s the only semi-decent photo we have of both kids together in their costumes. We were heading out in the rain when it was taken, so Carter’s costume integrity was compromised by the last-minute addition of the Spider-Man hat.

Both costumes were made by my mom, except for the garbage truck, which I constructed from lots of cardboard, glue and duct tape. Carter insisted that he be a Recology truck and not just any garbage truck. The Angry Bird face on Henry’s costume was done free-hand by his Nana, not from a pattern. She is a crazy Halloween seamstress. Hope you had a great Halloween!

Andrea

Hi P-Fresh,

Long time reader, first time entrant. Our entry is the Endeavour space shuttle and the 747 jet that carried it piggyback on its final flight. The role of the space shuttle is played by our 1 year old son and the 747 is powerfully portrayed by our 4 year old daughter. These costumes were entirely crafted by me with valuable input from Dad (I was stumped on how to attach the wing to the baby until he came in at the final hour like Tim Gunn in Project Runway and advised how I could “make it work”). The costumes are primarily felt. The wings were constructed from foam and wrapped in felt while the turbine engines are “re-purposed” Coke cans. NASA logos were printed out and hot glued onto the wings; USA flags are original art works by my daughter.

While our formal contest entry is the horizontal shot, I am also including a vertical photo from the kids’ Halloween parade so you can see how Dad was re-creating the final flight for parade onlookers and fellow trick-or-treaters in the evening by thrusting the baby onto his sister’s back, against the constant objection of both. Feel free to use either if we’re fortunate enough to be selected as a winner or honorable mention.

Thanks for running this contest every year! I look forward to seeing everyone’s creative entries.

Rhean

My son started raising bees through 4H this year. He’s really taken to it and has done well with them. This is his commercial bee suit, with bees we made using water bottles.

Leigh Hunt

Hi Peter,

This is our third year entering the contest, once you’ve gone crafty you can’t go back! Sorry for the tardiness of our entry, but we were up until 2am last night finishing these up! This year Jack (6.5) and Teddy (3) are totally into “space” so they selected costumes based on this theme — Jack is a Saturn V rocket and Teddy is the Hubble telescope. The Saturn V is made out of (from top to bottom): a small paper towel tube, a funnel, poster board, 3 different sizes of concrete form tubes, broken soccer cones cut in half and painted, and the ubiquitous drink cup painted black — oh and don’t forget mass quantities of spray paint and hot glue. The Hubble is made from the same concrete form tubes then covered in foil and the solar panels are foam board with foil strips attached. Notice this year the boys are holding hands and smiling! Thanks so much for the contest, we can’t wait to see what everyone else has crafted.

Best,

Johanna Jay

This year, my wife made our five year old son’s “The Man with the Yellow Hat” costume from scratch to go along with his two year old brother’s Curious George costume. Some day in the future, the five year old will learn that the only yellow pants she could find were girl skinny jeans. Oh well, what’s done is done.

Duane

Our baby boy, Colin, was Tony the Tiger. I turned an old flat panel TV box into a cereal box, by covering it with felt with a hot glue gun. Letters on the box were also cut from felt. So the actual baby tiger costume was store bought, but the baby Bjorn was hand-decorated to match the tiger costume (also felt). The costume turned out Gr-r-eat!

Thanks,

Laura Blentlinger

Phoenix is a Bubblicious Gumball Machine

Nikia

Peter,

My little boy Owen is a huge Shaun the Sheep fan, so I could think of nothing better to dress him up as for Halloween. However, I feel incredibly nerdy parenty when trying to explain to childless or older adults exactly who Shaun the Sheep is. “Have you heard of Wallace and Gromit? No? Remember the movie Chicken Run? No? Do you have Netflix? No? It’s um a show.”

Sorry for the harsh flash.

Amy G.

Chico

Here are Garbage Truck with Garbage Can (currently worn by Bear Bear), and Waste Management Unit IVN-4 with Candy Deposit Pouch. Hand made with mostly home and donated materials. Had boxes, paint, glue, and donated dead computer parts; had to go buy the tap-lights, and dryer duct. Kid-participatory: both costumes determined by kids, accessories glued and taped on by kids, and the robot found his own 3d glasses and insisted the robot needed 3d vision — thanks, Make magazine!
Please wish us luck this evening: between a toddler that refuses to wear the costume he demanded, and the rain threatening to dissolve all the Elmer’s glue and cardboard completely, we’ll need it. – Gaby, aka Mechanic Mom

After my infamous ghost costume, I have continued to try for ever higher levels in the costume arts. For your consideration, ghost’s sister as a Rainbow Space Butterfly. (Although Disco Butterfly may be a better title…all component are homemade, including the wings–black knee high stockings over copper wire)

Robin

My son is Totoro (every night in October my husband spent the hour between kid bedtime and ours working on this costume!) and my niece is Alice in Wonderland (her costume was made for her mom, my sister-in-law, by an honorary grandma in 1979!). Crafty and vintage!
-Serena in Santa Cruz

Hi Guys, and Happy Halloween!

This is Emmett. He’s 2, and his favorite thing in the world, apart from marshmallows, is the “Mahna Mahna” song from The Muppet Show. He had a perfectly suitable monster costume to wear this year, but insisted that “Mahna Mahna Guy” was what he really wanted to be. So multiple hot glue gun burns later, here we are. The creatures who sing the “Doo-doo-doo-doo” are called “The Snowths”, which I learned thanks to much perusing on Muppet Wiki page. The Snowths are made from foam, felt, yarn, & hot glue. Mahna Mahna’s wig and beard are sewn onto the hood from a Teletubbies costume I found at the Goodwill. Emmett would wear this costume every day if I let him, but unless he’s holding The Snowths, he just looks like he should be dancing around at Burning Man.

Good trick-or-treating to you,
Annie Stanner Cooper

Dear Peter,

Here are Solomon and Milo Sperry back with local pride in our transit systems. (We took a year off after the Transamerica Pyramid – Coit Tower costumes of 2010). We’ll be out collecting fares from ghosts and ghouls — all the usual riders. I’m very pleased that the boys chose to be transit vehicles and not (as they were planning in August) major area bridges. As long as it can be made from cardboard, it’s worth doing!

Thanks for hosting this again,

Raphael Sperry, Architect & Dad

Hi Peter-

Here is my daughter, Audrey F, 10, in her octopus costume. She made the costume itself with some help from Candice at Lost Art Sewing School in San Anselmo. I sewed on the suction cups, most of which came from a bath mat. 88 bath mat suction cups, 8 large hang-the-ornament-on-the-window suction cups. It was all her idea.

Love the blog! Thanks,

Katy Bernheim (Katy B.)

San Anselmo

This is my 9-year-old daughter, Sidney Plummer, dressed as a wind-up doll for Halloween! The key is made of foam core, attached to a metal base by an industrial designer friend, and then attached to music box parts I found online. I attached the key assembly to a black belt with a wooden brace, spray painted it silver, then attached the whole business to a belt with a staple gun and copious amounts of epoxy glue. The key turns and plays Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, which is only irritating after 500 children turn the key 1000 times.

Noël Plummer

Albany Mom of One

My son wanted to be a walnut, I thought he was so creative and nature-loving. He actually wanted to be Wall-nut. Dad and son put in some long papier mâché hours, but I was impressed at how much of the work he did himself. And somehow it morphed into King of the Wall-nuts. I’m a little worried the zombie kids will take him down tonight. The crown was store-bought.

-Gab D.

Fletcher loves the San Francisco Zoo’s Little Puffer Train, so this year the choice was obvious. I had to build him a Littl’ler Puffer! The build started about three weeks ago and three 1st degree burns ago (hot glue is called HOT for a reason.) It’s built from foam core, kitchen parts, bucket lids and a old trash can on his Little Tikes push car! Thanks to Bob and Johnny (at the Zoo)!!

By HardyDanger

Hi Peter,

My sister, who lives in San Francisco, has been telling me for several years that we should enter our homemade costumes in your contest. So, here is our entry for this year. Our 3-year old told us he wanted to be a garbage truck for Halloween. My husband, who made an awesome Walle costume several years ago for our older son, ran with the idea and styled it to look like the garbage trucks in Boulder, CO, where we live. Here is Zane modeling his garbage truck, complete with a hand held garbage can.

Thanks,

Cindy

Hi Peter,

Please include this photo of our daughter Lorelei for consideration. She was very clear about being a “pumpkin on the prowl” for Halloween. The orange shirt is from Goodwill, we had extra black felt and we glue gunned the felt leaves and vines for her headband. Ballet tutus provide the filler!

Thank you,

Steven Kahlich

Hi Peter,

This is our son Seamus Flanigan (3.5 years old)in his Space shuttle costume. The astronaut costumes on all of us are store bought but I built the space shuttle myself out of boxes, duct tape and recycled plastic pots. Seamus has some physical challenges and just started walking in June so it was great that he could ride on the space shuttle for the

Piedmont Avenue parade. The shuttle is built on top of his tricycle that has a push bar(he’s still learning to peddle). You can’t tell from the picture but it’s also equipped with some space sounds on the console that I pulled from one of his old toys. It took some creative wiring but it worked and all of the kids seemed excited about the sounds.

Here’s our three year old daughter Brooklyn in a homemade Superman costume circa 1981! My mother-in-law made this for my husband when he was a crime fighting three year old living in New Jersey. Today (31 years later) it’s still helping kids beat crime in Marin! Go Giants!!

Thanks!

Chelsea Schlunt

This came together at the last minute! My 5th grader Adam as the Mars Curiosity Rover.

No biggie if it doesn’t make the contest. It’s pretty basic, but I enjoyed making the boy’s skeleton costume. Sweats from Target and the last bottles of fabric paint from Beverly’s and some last- minute painting between classes, and voila! The hat was his idea. And he’s a friendly skeleton because he doesn’t want to scare the younger kids at preschool.

-Hel

Hi Peter!

This is 9 year old Will as the Android character.

Three weeks ago, if you had asked me to compare the likelihood of this costume getting successfully made vs. the chances of the Giants coming back from two games down in the NLDS to sweep the Tigers in the World Series, I would have put my money on the Giants. I am possibly the least crafty person on the planet. But what are you supposed to do when your kid asks you to make him an Android for Halloween? He had confidence in me, so I had to give it a go. Along the way I got introduced to glue guns, paper mache (too much goop and it takes forever to dry!), and serger sewing machines, so I guess it was a learning experience. I’m still working on his sister’s skunk costume. Thank goodness our baby is too young to ask to be anything!

Alissa McLean

Hi,

I’m Denise R. and this is my kid Max. His costume may not be the most original, or witty, but it was a thrill for me to make. Especially since last year he insisted on a store bought super hero rag. Even though I did need to open my wallet for paint, duct tape, dryer vent, and an oven thermometer, most of the items were prizes from a thorough scavenger hunt in my mother’s garage and kitchen. Max had a blast helping me out constructing this masterpiece and I had fun getting out the ol’ glue gun and utility knife.

Enjoy!
Denise

Hi,

My 9 and 12 year old nieces are obsessed with Japanese toys. Domo is one of their favorites with happens to be named close to my son’s nickname Domi. We call this photo attack of the Domo’s.

Happy Halloween!

Vanessa G.

Hi!

Divemaster Sammy: Our son Sammy (3) wanted to be a diver after seeing me working as a volunteer diver at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

This was our compromise (for now). The tank is made from a 2L soda bottle, I stitched together the harness from 1′ nylon webbing and a velcro belt, the weights are cleaning sponges, and the fins cardboard. I made the regulator from a used take-out condiment container and an actual regulator mouthpiece.

Michael Grimmer

Do I dig first or after?

Love,

Russell from Movie UP

Howdy! Hope we haven’t missed the chance to enter your contest…we’re excited to participate for the first time. The attached picture is of our son Mazen in his robot costume. We were on deadline for a school party, so we made this in 24 hours with items we found at home (though we did purchase the dryer ducting). It was a family affair, with the kid helping at every stage. Enjoy!

Kerry Abukhalaf

Hi Peter,
My husband and I are both teachers who had to move classrooms this year. With all the leftover boxes, I couldn’t resist crafting a costume (for the first time ever) by combining our son’s lego love and our classroom carcases. Some of my students helped!
The best part of the idea came from one student when I couldn’t decide which colors to be– she suggested yellow + blue = green.

We took this photo yesterday as a practice run, before we sprayed the glossy finish.

Happy Halloween,
Betsy Sergeant Snow

The glue is still drying on this costume, but I wanted to get it in before the deadline. My son chose to be a sting ray after two other failed costume attempts on my part – a crawfish and an angler fish. He was the planking squid last year and with the sting ray this year the under-the-sea theme continues. I sent two photos – one from the front and one from the back.

Have a great Halloween!
Amanda (albeit)

I thought I’d take advantage of baby as costume accessory while my son Teddy is too young to argue. We premiered the costume today at Yaboo! and I enjoyed the surprise from the audience when I lifted Teddy Boombox over my head–before that I just looked like an eccentric in my Pussy Riot T and trenchcoat. Afterwards I looked like an eccentric John Cusack fan with a son who will one day grow up to resent her (which is pretty accurate).

Thanks!

Nikki S.

Bubble gum on the bottom of a shoe

Thanks,

Sarah Kashner

My 3 year old wanted to be a Luchadore like her favorite artist/video, Kimbra http://youtu.be/PUUivXgJ2S4 until the Monday before Halloween when she started impersonating a horse and asking to turn into a pink horse. So I modified her existing costume which was a bunch of thrift store finds along with a luchadore mask to create this interpretation of a horse.

Paul & Samanda

Hi Peter,
I figure my days of influencing the kids’ Halloween costumes are severely numbered, so I took advantage of the 2-year old’s Wizard of Oz phase and went with a family theme: Dorothy, Glinda and a little winged monkey. (If Mom and Dad can get their acts together, we may dress up as the witch and scarecrow, respectively.) Luckily, we already owned the red sparkly shoes–as any house with at least one little girl does–and I was able to reuse the same dress pattern from last year’s Jessie the Cowgirl. It wasn’t too difficult to convince my older daughter to be Glinda, as that costume included her two necessary elements: pink and sparkly. I got brave and finally taught myself how to use my new sewing machine, and a couple of YouTube tutorials later, the dresses were a reality. I am so proud of the Glinda dress (I made a zipper!), I may list it on my resume from now on. Our 4-week old winged monkey is simply wearing a monkey print sleeper with a pair of felt wings clipped to his back. I had hoped to get a photo of all three together but, as I am learning, coordinating three children in any activity is a bit trickier than I had guessed!

Happy Halloween to everyone!
Aimee (nocalgirl615)

Here is my three year old son in his Thomas the Tank Engine costume – cardboard and felt. He does not like wearing it, as you can see. But after suffering second degree burns on both hands from the hot glue I was going to get a picture even if it is a frowny one. I know you have other train entries already but I am a long time reader and first time entrant so I couldn’t resist.

Thanks! Adrienne

(RaisedbyTV)

Love this contest! Here’s our entry:

Miles, age “almost 3,” has asked for a lion costume since mid-September. I was sure he’d change his mind as soon as I finished making a lion costume, but he loves it and doesn’t want to take it off. I dyed a white sweatsuit then hot-glued strips of felt (and my fingers) to make the mane. Turned out fairly well, if I do say so myself.

Joni L. in Sunnyvale

Hi, This is our 20-month old son, Jaxon, dressed up as my favorite anime character, Totoro. His dad (my hubby) used to make stuffed animals as a kid, so now has put his sewing skills to great use. Made out of felt, plastic board for the ears, and the tail came at the sacrifice of some cheap (yet expensive! J) carnival stuffed animals. The costume took many hours to make after the kiddo was asleep each nite. Pics were taken this year at SJ Pumpkins in the Park and at SF Presidio Trails.

Happy Trick or treat!

Tina L.,

Sunnyvale, CA

Dear Mr Hartlaub,

Thank you for the opportunity to enter the contest. Our entry (the picture labeled Tommy1) is a picture of my 14 year old son Thomas Firestone in his Gorilla carrying a kid in a cage costume.

Thanks again,

Dan Firestone

Anthony Broderick, age 11, “heading out” for Halloween in Sacramento. (That’s fresh broccolli next to his head… as close as he’s ever come to eating it!)

We’re enjoying the creative costume photos. Thanks a lot!

James (and Kara) Broderick

Hello,

At this time last year, we were calling our now 5.5 month old daughter Dahlia “The Prawn”, since all zygotes look like prawns (and it rhymes with “spawn”). I had a year to figure out a prawn costume, and here’s the result. Just a pink sweatsuit, felt, batting, some pipe cleaners and minimal sewing skills. After Halloween I’ll remove the costume parts so she can wear the sweatsuit. Underneath is a onesie from this summer that has prawns on it!

Happy Halloween,

Meredith & Dahlia “Prawn” Kinney

My 9 year old “Swamp Girl” and 7 year old ‘Peacock”. I give the girls a hard Oct 1st deadline (no changes, no going back) to decide what they want to be, then I have 30 days to make their paper drawing costumes come to life.
It often involves glue guns, sub par sewing skills, rummaging through my husbands tool boxes, cursing, wine and optional weeping.

Happy Halloween!
Sarah Jeske

Steve and Owen Neal

Watch, my lips won’t move.

After explaining Halloween and costumes to three year old Hugo, he decided he wanted to be a subway for Halloween. Not a subway driver, but an actual subway. BART is his current favorite form of transportation. After a few attempts, this is what we came up with.

Michael B

Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven and Lenore … Lenore the comic book character, that is!

I bought the base of the costumes, but spruced them all up and sewed stuff on, like the collar, the feathers and of course did all the makeup myself. I added the skull clips to the wig and came up with the whole design & costume myself! It was a lot of fun. It is our baby, Dalia’s, first Halloween so I had to go all out!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween!

I’ll freely admit that this is not from this year but wanted to share my son’s sumo wrestler costume. I made it out of yarn and fabric when my son Logan was 6 months old and he seemed to pose when wearing it.

This year’s truck costume is a “work in progress” which is a nice way of saying that it is a completely undone hot glue mess in the corner of the room. I got to page 3 of the directions and realised there are no dimensions for a key component. He may be a ghost.

Renee L

Go Giants!

This is 3 yr old Ivy, who first wanted to be an astronaut, then a pumpkin, and then a superhero. Given our intense Giants fandom, the fact that we happen to own a panda mask (and the last-minute superhero desire), I thought we’d go for…SUPER PANDA! We have this awesome handmade cape from her Auntie Aubrey, and the tutu from our friend Mali; I added the orange + black leggings, and made the SF from orange felt. I added the eyeblack so that when she takes off the mask she’s still got the baseball vibe.

It was a big hit at the Piedmont Ave Costume Parade—everyone was yelling ‘Go Giants!’ and she took a picture w/ a kid dressed as Scutaro.

Thanks!

Kate Schatz

Hi Peter,

Here’s my son Ben Gripman in the Minecraft Enderman costume his mom and I made for him. If you’re the parent of an 8 to 14 year old boy, you’ve either heard of Minecraft, or you hear about Minecraft every ten minutes from your child. It’s a combination of a video game and creative building environment that’s all in 8-bit color and graphics (think late 1980’s tech). Ironically, that which is easy to do on screen is vexing in real life. Throwing together a few boxes to make an 8-bit character turned out to be an 8 hour job.

-Stuart

Hi Peter
Medusa 2012!

Thanks,
Rosabelle Sylvester

Hello there!
How fun to see the amazing Halloween palooza of costumes — I LOVE that this has become a beloved tradition for all to delight in!

Her mommy and daddy worked hard together to create the cutest little owl we could!

Suzy C.

Hi Peter,

When my 8-year old son said he wanted to dress up as everyone’s favorite Mandalorian for Halloween this year, I geeked out a little. Okay, a lot. I give you Boba Fett — I purchased the helmet and the boots, but everything else is either modified or made from scratch (oddly, not my first time making wrist-mounted rocket launchers — that’s just how it is in our family).

-Mama Fett

PS: You can’t see the Wookiee braids in this picture, but they’re there.

My three and one year old are obsessed with UP–and they were delighted with their costumes of Russell and Mr. Fredricksen!

Rachel S.

My son Tynan, age 11, made his own Iron Man costume entirely by hand out of duct tape and cardboard. He’s been working on it for the past three months and has at least 80 hours invested.

—
Jenn Purdy

Peter,

This is my son dressed as Disney’s Perry the Platypus. It’s my first attempt at using a sewing machine. I still had to use a Leatherman somehow (see inset).

The “head” is a cap bought from Disneyland. The body was made from a generic costume pattern. I couldn’t find teal-colored “fur” so I settled on crazy thin fabric, opting for color accuracy vs. a more finished look.

I designed felt “feet” that sit on top of the shoes, held in place by a loose, white elastic calf strap and a thick loop for the velcro shoe thingy.

Perry’s tail is two layers of felt with the distinctive three-diamond pattern stitched into it.

Many mistakes were made. For one, the neck opening is way too large, so I found a teal collared shirt to wear underneath. And, as you can see, I can’t sew straight worth a darn (see inset), but I had fun and my son likes it!

WirelessAndy, 2012

After searching in vain for a decent bee costume without stupid glitter wings and ruffles, I borrowed my son’s favorite pajamas paired with Sharpie-colorized Converse and a hand sewn stinger and the Killer Bee was born. The wings are store bought. The antennae were as well but were rejected immediately

Katy M

Happy Halloween!

This is our son Jacob (two years ago he was Elliot from the movie ET). He loves trains and wanted to be an engineer this year for Halloween. We made the train from an old diaper box, cardboard tube, and black paint. We got the hat and patches at a train museum. He’s really looking forward to taking a run on the Candy Express!

Thanks

Josh and Darlene

Hi Peter,
Here is our 2nd annual entry into the Homemade Halloween costume contest. This is my son, Finn, age 2 and a half, as Captain Hook. This was entirely his idea, and he also assigned the whole family related costumes–mom was Tinkerbell, dad was Peter Pan, his Nana was Smee, and his grandma was a pirate. We also brought along his stuffed crocodile prop. Captain Hook’s costume credit goes to his Grandma. The hat and hook were also used by Finn’s dad when he was a kid. Peter Pan’s costume was just an oversized t-shirt and some yarn. No sewing involved!
Thanks,
Molly Christensen

(I’m including a picture that shows Peter too, just in case you are also having your group costume contest this year as well)

Spaghetti n meatballs!

– Steven L.

Pulled together the costumes today and ALMOST got some good pictures of both girls. Have you tried photographing a 20-month-old and a 3 year old simultaneously? I think doing it right it requires sedation and manacles. For all of us.

Anyway, Eliza’s moved full-on into fairy phase, so she’s a Tinker Fairy–part of Tinker Bell’s guild of fairies who build things for the more glamorous fairies (like geeks!). Her leotard and wings are store-bought, but I made the skirt and the rock hammer, which is kind of like a magic wand for tinker fairies.

Gillian is accompanying her as a bag of pixie dust. Costume’s made out of a dyed fitted crib sheet stuffed with gold mesh, a dyed brown turtleneck, a felt cap and the pants Eliza wore as Bilbo Baggins two years ago. If we’re lucky on Halloween night, I might be able to get some glitter on Gillian before she rips off the entire costume.

Viva la crafty Halloween, carrying on over here in Pittsburgh, PA!

-Jody H.

Hi Peter!

Just under the wire, and the costumes were so much work I forgot to include today’s Chron. Sorry about that.

For months, Keely (now 4) and June (2), have been asking to be Frances and Gloria, the little badger sisters from the Russell and Lillian Hoban books from the 60’s. We warned them many times that lots of people wouldn’t know who they were, but they didn’t care, they love the books and identify strongly with the characters.

So, I had to try to sew from a pattern and adjust a bear costume to be vaguely badger-shaped (ears & tail). Then there was the task of changing the white fur suits I finally made (with elastic help from my mom) into striped and vaguely badger-looking. Faux fur is difficult to dye, so I finally settled on drawing on it with a black sharpie, then hanging the costumes in our neighbor’s yard to air out so the kids didn’t asphyxiate (it worked– I hope!).

My husband Gary made the accessories we didn’t have, including a “Chompo bar” (from A Birthday for Frances), a china tea set with “pictures all in blue” (from A Bargain for Frances), and a sign about their sisters-only adventure (from Best Friends for Frances). We already had a wagon and a picnic hamper (from Best Friends) that will double as a candy receptacle, as well as play bread and jam (from Bread and Jam for Frances). Let me be clear that for some reason we couldn’t find a china tea set near us that was cheap enough, so my husband bought a “paint your own” kit and MADE a tea cup, saucer, and tea pot in a traditional china pattern. Madness.

Oof! Next year I will attempt to steer back toward pajamas + a glue gun. They were super excited, though, so that pretty much makes it worth it.

All my best, and thanks again!

Esme Shaller, Berkeley

My name is Vince and this year we built my 9 yr old son Ayden Cliff Jumper from Transformers. Built all out of foam, hot glue and paint.

Thanks
Vince and Ayden Vigil

Home-made Lego Pirate costume. Made for my 6 year old. Photo is of front & back.

Thank you!

Sincerely, Elizabeth Russell

Aloha, Peter!

Magnum, P.I.(P.S.Q.U.E.A.K.)…

Bushy, thick mustache topped with lustrous, manly locks of 1980s hair? Check. Hawaiian shirt? You betcha. Aviator sunglasses? Oh yeah! Binoculars for spying on the bad guys? Got ’em. Killer dimples? Present. Full mane of chest hair? Working on that. Normally, Magnum would be wearing his trademark navy blue Detroit Tigers ball cap, but being MLB playoff season, we went with a more Giants orange-friendly one.

Pipsqueak’s pop,
Chris Rooney
Berkeley

Hi Peter,

We’ve been so inspired by this contest over the years, we decided to make our own super crafty costume even though we are not super crafty people. Our son, Nicholas (almost 2 y/o), doesn’t use many words but is adept at making monkey noises and gets very excited when he sees monkeys or bananas. Hence the monkey costume. Using a glue gun, we embellished a brown hoodie sweatshirt and sweatpants with furry fabric and sewed a button for the belly button. Ears and feet are fur-covered cardboard. The trick or treat bag is a store bag covered with white contact paper and adhesive yellow felt for the bananas. The costume took 2 hours to make and cost about $30 (sweatsuit & fabric). We now live in a colder climate and this costume will be comfy and cozy for trick or treating. Thank you for doing this contest!

Shannon & Warwick
Formerly of San Mateo, CA

Hi there,

Here is the costume dad and mom made. Daddy is a tattoo artist so he drew the shirt and we thought the tattoo sleeves were amazing. I sewed those down to fit her. We sewed the stripped pieces on to her shorts and made the shirt out of one of her onsies. We added a few stars because all roller derby girls are rock stars!

Thank you,
Justine M.

Not eligible for contest, but thought I’d share for a laugh. Here’s is my daughter as The Dude from The Big Lebowski. She even had the same jelly shoes. Only a few people *got it*.

Thanks!

Rene Becker

Hi Peter,

I’m submitting the costume I made for my son, Anderson. He wants to be a Super Hero when he grows up so naturally he wanted to get a jump on it and be Super A for Halloween. We took him pumpkin picking in HMB and he wanted to wear his costume -so here he is doing what he does best. I did by a mask “kit” in the dollar spot in target for him, but he embellished it all on his own -pretty much everything else was found in our house. He loves his costume so much I made his 3 mo old sister one too ( I have a cute pic of her, but not one of them together yet, so she’s not submitted).

Happy Halloween
-Dawn B. San Mateo, CA

I made this costume from an old flannel blanket dyed blue. The red and white is felt. The only items purchased were a bit of fake fur and blue and white face paints. The costume is worn by my 16 year old daughter Amanda Reaver .

I, Darcy Reaver,, made the entire thing in a few hours. We walked around the local mall and she was enormously popular. My daughter says it was one of the funnest days she ever had. She felt like a celebrity!!

Hope you enjoy!

Darcy Reaver

Elena Reaver is wearing a cherub costume made by Gramma.

Submitted by Darcy Reaver .

Hi Peter,

When our oldest son, Decker, made it into the Super Crafty Halloween Hall of Fame in 2009 (Up! House), we realized we set the bar rather high for ourselves when it came to our other kid. Little did we realize that just a few months later we would have a double surprise on the way. Fast forward through a few years of sleep deprivation and outright panic, and we’re back on the super crafty hobbyhorse and ready to ride into the sunset. With glue guns in hand and a fresh coat of spray paint lining our sinuses, my wife and I knocked out three of the four costumes pictured: Thing 1, Thing 2 & LEGO Soccer Player. The fourth costume, circus ringmaster, was hand-sewn by my Mom, Trudi Riley-Quinn.

The Bay Area has just the right mix of cleverness, determination, and insanity to achieve what can only be tagged with #OMG, #LOL and #WTF. The Super Crafty Halloween Costumer Contest seems to capture a perfect snapshot of that mix every year. The contest is both entertainment and inspiration to me and my family and we will look forward to it for years to come. With that, we respectfully submit these costumes, with hopes of increasing this year’s ratio of both determination and insanity. We’ll leave cleverness for someone else.

Best Regards,
Sean O’Steen

Hi Peter,

We’re a big fan of the contest, but didn’t enter last year with this costume. Our son Jasper is a big enamored by Tow Mater from the Cars movie. He’s quite specific about which persona of Mater he likes. He chose Tokyo Mater. That’s the one that’s been “modified!” I made the front end, which made use of my years in architecture school. But, really the best part of the costume is the back end created by my husband Andy. He did the wheels which are complete with disk brakes, the “carbon fiber” wing, and he put flames out the back as we were rushing out the door. We never expected kids who were dressed as cars would want to hook up to the tow hook, but I guess you can’t blame them for trying.

Thanks,

Jane Lin

Hi Peter,

My oldest son wanted to be the planet Saturn for Halloween. I knew he wouldn’t like a bulky 3-D costume so I flattened Saturn by cutting circles and the rings (in the shape of a rubber band) out of cardboard, painted them up with some craft paints, and velcro-ed them to a black shirt. We then plastered the shirt with lots of glittery star stickers. Realizing something was missing, I made a flying saucer hat out of more cardboard, attached blinking lights on the rim (a Christmas light LED necklace), and added a crew of aliens peering out of a plastic bowl saucer dome. I’ve attached a front + back view. Saturn is accompanied by his younger brother, Count Dracula, while trick-or-treating in downtown Saratoga on 10/27/2012.

Thanks,
Eric. S.

Hi,

This started 3 years ago with a transforming Optimus prime costume, then bumblebee and finally Starscream.

It was so much fun making the costumes and designing ways on how they would transform, as well as the absolute joy that people express when they see it transform. So when my son asked for another one, we decided to do Starscream.

-Frazer

Hi,

My name’s Peter. I run this blog. For the last six years, I watched idly by as you created costumes. This year I made my son a Venus Flytrap. My fingerprints burned off using the hot glue gun so now I’ll begin a life of crime.

-Peter Hartlaub

Max Porter of Fremont, age 4 and a half. (The half matters!)

My husband is completely ridiculous, and I mean that in the very best way. When Max told us he wanted to be Thomas for Halloween, we agreed… hubs had a day off from work and put this together. Seriously. The man is crazy!

Built from cardboard boxes, styrofoam and paper mache, embellished with pin striping and spray paint… Thomas weighs in at about 8 lbs, including the 2x4s that are attached in the back end for ballast.

Max is thrilled, as am I!
-Lizz Porter

My 3 year old wanted to be Giant Man/Ant-man, one of the more obscure Avengers, for Halloween. Since he’s not a popular character and the costume not readily available in stores, I had to make one, using mostly electrical and duct tape and pipe cleaners. The “power packs” on the duct taped belt (which the character uses to grow or shrink) are boxes of playing cards wrapped in silver gift wrap.

I’m not submitting to win a prize – I am not generally a crafty person and can barely sew so I’m just really proud of myself for coming up with something to make my kid happy and showing him that someone with mediocre “talent” and ingenuity can create something if you just try.

Kathy S.

Last year the kids were Edward Scissorhands and The Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland.

-Steph

I’m excited that this year my son Max is going to dress as Max from Where the Wild Things Are. He was named after my Grandfather, but the Sendak book is quite meaningful to me, so I guess I was saving this costume for when he was old enough to appreciate it, and young enough to still be cute. (Pretty sure he nailed that part.)

Here he is trying it on for size. I measured him and it’s still a bit big, and you can’t see the best part – the tail! Plus, clearly, he shouldn’t be wearing a striped shirt under it.

Hand made in San Jose! Though now he wants a crown (of course) and I haven’t figured out how to attach that. It’s okay, I have at least 2 hours before Halloween where I won’t be completely focused on baseball. I like the idea of winning the Series at home, but that would mean baseball during Trick or Treating – ack! I remember that from 2010 and I basically abandoned my kids… good thing they’re older now!

– Noemi

This is my nine month old son as Sheldon Cooper. Everything is store bought but I made the Flash logo.

-P. Peterson

Hello Peter,

Here is my dual entry for the costume contest. My son loves Thomas the Train and little brother loves to join in so he was the caboose. Created out of shipping boxes, take out containers, old belts, blue painter’s tape and the wonderful invention of different colored duct tape!
Thanks for having this wonderful contest.

-Jasmin A.

For the past year my daughter has been wearing a traffic cone on her head, proclaiming herself to be a Garden Gnome….making this year’s costume a no-brainer. I did not intend to make the costume, but she wanted to be a girl gnome and all I could find to purchase were boy gnomes or slutty girl gnomes (sigh). I made the hat, skirt, suspenders and pom poms for her hair. Once I committed to making the costume, I realized that there is a very fine line between gnome and elf, so I added all the flowers to the skirt and hat. Hopefully people can pick up on the garden gnome vibe … although at today’s Halloween party, someone called her a “fairy.” Harumph.

Amy

Brother’s costume was store bought (or rather internet bought), but sister’s costume was made with left over silver lamé (don’t ask me left over from what) for the skirt and collar. The collar is covering a panda iron-on on the black shirt. The antennae are silver pipe cleaners and painted foam balls and the arm bands are clear polyurethane plumbing tubing filled with silver glitter. My favorite thing is that the hoop skirt underneath the skirt makes this alien look like she is actually floating. Gotta love love living in the Bay Area where you can go to NASA Ames Research Center and take cool pictures like this!

Always a fun time on SF Gate with you, Peter! Thanks!

-Marie S.

Hi Peter,

This is a photo of my 5-1/2 month old son as Totoro. I love Totoro and received this costume as a gift from my brother and his girlfriend. He bought the materials and she made it from scratch. This is the best gift I ever received!

-May

Hello Peter:

I’d like to submit a photo of my daughter (yes that is a girl) as a green goblin. I sewed this costume myself altering a pattern that I found for a knight. I bought the ears and painted them green. The belt is a green glitter belt that I wore in my glory days of being a glitter-queen in the 70’s. Thanks for your consideration.

Sue Denim

The Goldfish and The Blue-Ringed Octopus….

This is Dillon. He is 3 years old. His older brother who is 10 is obsessed with The Avengers. Dillon just adores his big bro and wants to be just like him.

They pretend to be Hulk and Captain America and run around the house fighting the bad guys and smashing everything in sight. Thankfully nothing has gotten broken yet!

For Halloween, all Dillon could talk about was Avengers so for a surprise I started working on a Captain America costume for him. His face when he saw the finished project was priceless. The funniest part was him running around making fighting noises, and his brother telling him not to spit while making the noises.

He already had the blue pants and shoes. I purchased the gloves and the shield. I purchased the Army helmet but I painted it to look like Captain America. I made his jacket, the red and white stripes, the star, the red boots, the utility belt, and the mask. I did it all without a pattern. … The utility belt was the hardest. I cut strips of green and grey denim material and pieced them together to make the pouches. I sewed hooks on to keep the pouches closed. I made the belt out of backpack strap material and a plastic belt clasp.

Kim Matteson

Fruit bats — made by my mother in law.

Angela B.

“Open your mind Quaid” – Kuato, Total Recall

I have to give all the credit for this costume to my husband. He often goes on walks with our son in a Baby Bjorn and he started referring to him as Kuato from Total Recall because it was like having a little person on his chest all the time. So for Halloween, I found this flesh colored t shirt (surprisingly hard to find) and cut some arm holes in it and popped the whole thing over the bjorn and Kuato was reborn! Enjoy!

Cathy T.

***

Thanks to everyone who entered! Keep checking back. I’ll be adding more up to Halloween.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder/editor of The Big Event. He takes requests. Contact him at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. Follow him on Twitter @peterhartlaub. Follow The Big Event on Facebook.